Tag Archive: reservations

As a hotel reservationist, I’ve realized I have a love/hate relationship with people, mostly love, but sometimes hate. It’s not nearly as bad as my Priceline days, but here are some tips to keep in mind when booking a reservation:

The hotels we represent DO NOT want you to call them directly to book a reservation, that’s why they’ve hired us and only put OUR NUMBER on the website!

If you are already looking online at rates for a hotel stay, please just save you and I the time it takes you to argue with me about rates, and JUST BOOK IT ONLINE! It’s the same price.

Call the hotel directly if you are trying to modify reservations…we don’t make any m0ney canceling or modifying reservations…that’s why we give you the hotel phone # when you make a reservation!

Please do your research online when it comes to checking rates. Again, we don’t make any money when you are just “checking rates”!

Please don’t get upset with us when we tell you the hotels’ offices are closed. We don’t make the rules, nor do we have the powers to magically reopen them just for you!

If you don’t know how to google a hotel phone number, I’ll be happy to assist, but please do have pen and paper handy when calling.

90% of the time, you need a credit card to reserve a room, so please ask us up front if one is required to reserve a room…saves everyone time.

When you have more than 2 adults in a room, the price will go up! In some cases, it only takes more than one adult to increase the price. Children 18 and up are no longer considered children either.

If you are trying to reserve a room for a holiday weekend, don’t be surprised when the prices are much higher, or if the hotel is sold out. If you are booking for a holiday night, and there happens to be availability, the night of, the price will still be high.

Just thought this could be of use to anyone looking to book hotel reservations over the phone. I, as a reservations agent, would certainly appreciate any compliance 🙂

So, as many of you know, I work in a call center working for an online travel site (won’t say which one, but it’s not hard to figure out). I must say I never realized how dumb people really can be until I started here!!! I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve had that people misspell their own names on airline tickets!!! One man, in particular called in to get his money back because the airline wouldn’t allow him to board the plane, but he entered the passenger name as “Rrrr T Nnnn”!!!!! His name was Waled something or another, certainly not all consenants! I basically had to tell him he can call the a/l, but when they couldn’t help, he was SOL. What a dummy! I had one kid call saying he booked a ticket for his mother, but didn’t put in her legal name, he said he put in her nickname, and wanted to know if that would be a problem, and of course it was if it wasn’t on her license!! DUH!!!! My favorite, however, is when people think they’re just looking at prices for tickets or hotel rooms AFTER they enter in the credit card information!!!!! Even I, and I’m not the sharpest at times, know you don’t have to enter in the credit card information to price shop.

Now, when you name your own price on a hotel, you don’t get the option to select your hotel, you just put in the criteria (area, dates, star level) and it selects a hotel for you. I literally had one woman call because she had said she read bad reviews for her hotel, which happened to be a one-star!!! She must not have realized that you’re lucky if you get clean sheets w/ that star level!!!! And one thing I can’t get over is when people use name your own price (NYOP) for their honeymoons!!! Now, I’m all about getting the best rate, but would you really wanna take a chance on such an occasion???? I’ve had people call me upset that the hotel they got for their anniversaries are in bad parts of town, or just downright nasty, again, why would you book a 2-star for an anniversary??? I, personally, would rather stay home!

Last night, I had, by far, the strangest call I’ve ever had. A woman called (she had an accent, I could tell she was Asian), and was so upset that the hotel she received on NYOP (looked like a beautiful 4-star hotel) only had their standard rooms facing a cemetery! I advised she close the blinds, but she said it was a psychological issue!! Her husband then got on the line, and he then decided to tell me that her not wanting to be near a cemetery is a cultural difference. I did later look it up, and in some cultures, it is an issue, but the hotel was in Hong Kong!!!! Now, the hotel did offer her an opportunity to upgrade her room so she would be on another side of the building, but she didn’t feel she should be expected to pay more. Let’s just say we didn’t exactly see eye to eye! Anyhoo, the reservations are oh so restricted, and unless it’s pretty much life or death, we can’t cancel or change the reservation, of which customers think they can argue their way out of the contracts, and they really can’t!!!! I have only been called a dumbass and a bitch once, but I’ve heard agents get verbally abused, and it just makes you wonder who these people think they are!!! I would much rather deal with people on a face-to-face basis because people feel they are still fairly anonymous over the phone, and I know people wouldn’t act in that manner if they were in front of you!!! Lately, I’ve been getting the customers asking how it is that I sleep at night working for such a lousy company, and I have been dying to say “just fine, I roll right over” and to be honest, I don’t think about this job whatsoever when I walk out the door! When I went to the doctor, I was so suprised my blood pressure was normal, because there are some customers that get to me, and then a few minutes later, I’m fine, but this job has worn me down, I think I’ve become less sympathetic toward people, and that’s not a good thing, but as soon as I find another job where people aren’t so rude and blame me for their errors, I think I’ll be back to my normal, nice self….pray I find that job REAL SOON!!!!

I, honestly do think the NYOP option is great, as long as you don’t make any errors (they can be quite costly), and are EXTREMELY FLEXIBLE as to when you can travel, or where you stay!!!! I’m actually going to try to get my dad a hotel using it when he comes into town, and if I end up not liking where he ends up, I can find a way out of it lol.

TIP FOR USING NYOP: READ THE CONTRACT PAGE, IT’S NOT LONG, BUT IT DOES TELL YOU EVERYTHING!!!

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